Car Going Wrong Way on Freeway Kills Man : Traffic: Irvine civil engineer dies and his wife is injured in collision on Interstate 405 near Bristol Street. The wrong-way driver also is hospitalized.

COSTA MESA —  An Irvine man was killed and two other people critically injured in a fiery two-car collision triggered by a confused motorist who drove for miles on the wrong side of the San Diego Freeway, the California Highway Patrol said.

The 4:20 a.m. accident, which CHP officials believe to be alcohol-related, closed all but one lane of the northbound freeway at the Bristol Street off-ramp for three hours Saturday, while traffic investigators sorted through the wreckage, CHP spokeswoman Linda Burrus said.

Sang In Ahn, 50, a civil engineer, was pronounced dead at UCI Medical Center in Orange after he was airlifted to the hospital’s trauma center, Burrus said. His wife, Ook-Ja Ahn, 47, was listed in extremely critical condition at the same hospital with fractures and facial injuries.

The driver of the car heading in the wrong direction was identified as Faith L. Robinson, 23, of Huntington Beach, who was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana for treatment. She was listed in critical condition with multiple fractures, including a broken nose and wrist, and other injuries.

“She lost her left eye, and her face was pretty mashed,” Burrus said.

Robinson listed her occupation as bartender in 1989 voter registration records.

Burrus said CHP dispatchers began receiving reports of a motorist driving a dark car the wrong way on the northbound lanes of the freeway as far north as Westminster. By the time CHP officers were positioned to stop the driver, later identified as Robinson, the car had passed the Santa Ana riverbed and Fairview Road.

But before units could reach Robinson’s dark-blue, 1983 Buick Regal, it slammed head-on into Ahn’s maroon, 1985 Cadillac Sedan de Ville, Burrus said. Robinson was the lone occupant in her car.

“We were only a minute away from catching (Robinson),” Burrus said.

The impact was so severe that the Buick exploded in flames, Burrus said. A passing motorist jumped out of his car and put the flames out with a fire extinguisher before.

Minutes later, a Toyota pickup truck was unable to stop and struck both mangled cars, splitting them apart. The driver of the pickup truck, Corey J. Bailey, 16, of Huntington Beach, was not injured.

CHP investigators had initially been unable to determine who had been driving the wrong way, since witnesses only had sketchy descriptions of the car, Burrus said. And by the time officers arrived, the cars were so damaged that it was not clear which had been going the wrong way.

Burrus said that although the investigation is ongoing, it is believed to be alcohol-related. She did not elaborate.